Easily one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, not to mention a remake that has been a good few years in the making, Konami and Bloober Team’s reimagination of survival horror classic Silent Hill 2 is almost here. Though the story remains untouched, it will nonetheless bring with it a whole host of changes in other areas of its overall offering. What are those shiny new changes you ask? Well, we’ve got all the answers as we delve into the changes you should expect from the Silent Hill 2 remake when it releases this October.
Unreal Engine 5 Brings New Fiendish Fidelity To The Horror
A technically impressive genre offering when it was released for PlayStation 2 all the way back in September 2001, Silent Hill 2 still impresses even today with its moody, detailed visuals that marry up tremendous art direction with technical sheen to create one of the most atmospheric survival horror games ever created. In its newly remade form, the Silent Hill 2 remake brings Epic’s hugely capable Unreal Engine 5 technology to bear. This has resulted in a tremendous uptick in visual fidelity that gives this new version of Silent Hill 2 much-improved texture and world detail, together with reworked fog, shadow and reflection special effects. This combines to ensure that the Silent Hill 2 of 2024 is every bit as atmospheric as its 23-year-old source material.
A New Perspective
The leap to Unreal Engine 5 isn’t the only significant difference to the presentation of the Silent Hill 2 remake, as developer Bloober Team has also elected to change the camera perspective. Electing to ditch the elevated and sometimes overly cinematic third-person perspective of the 2001 original, Bloober Team’s take on Silent Hill 2 instead uses the same sort of over-the-shoulder perspective that fans and players of the recent Resident Evil remakes will no doubt already be familiar with. Though this decision might rankle those who wish to hark back to the presentation and perspective style of the original, there is no doubt that this shift in camera perspective will make Silent Hill 2’s numerous combat scenes a whole lot less fiddly than they were before. Speaking of which…
Survival Horror Combat Evolved
As part of its remit to remake Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team also wanted to overhaul the combat system which underpins many of its more violent encounters. Now, while combat was hardly a defining aspect of Silent Hill 2 in the way that it arguably is for the Resident Evil games, Bloober Team has nonetheless updated the combat experience in its Silent Hill 2 remake, with iron-sight aiming, a timed evasion system and much more physical melee battles to bring Silent Hill 2’s various grotesque skirmishes kicking and screaming into the 2024 survival horror genre.
Character Redesigns That May Upset You – Or Not
A quick look at any of the trailers or gameplay walkthroughs that Bloober Team has released for the Silent Hill 2 remake also confirms an unexpected fact – there have been changes, some subtle, some less so, to its cast of characters. Perhaps the most obvious example of these changes is Maria, the mysterious woman that our main protagonist James Sunderland meets when he reaches Silent Hill. Bearing a substantial resemblance to his missing wife Mary (with his wayward spouse being James’ whole reason for being in that fog-swamped town in the first place), Maria is everything that the darker side of James’ psyche wanted Mary to be. Sexualised and objectified by him, Maria is dressed in an appropriately risque fashion because she is, in part, reflecting James’ own desires which make her eventual fate all the more troubling. In the Silent Hill 2 remake however, she’s dressed much more modestly and while this may not mean much to newcomers to the game or series at large, it does alter some of the themes and key plot points that were so crucial to the original game in 2001.
A Broader, Deeper Game World With More Opportunities To Explore
Even though the Silent Hill 2 remake is largely a beat for beat match for the story of the original (and quite honestly, I can’t imagine series fans – or Konami – having it any other way), an opportunity has been seized to broaden the width, depth and breadth of the game world in which Silent Hill 2’s narrative unfurls. In real terms, Bloober Team intends to simply provide players with larger locations than the 2001 original, along with a raft of entirely new locations and areas filled with enemies and new secrets to be uncovered. Essentially, if when the credits rolled on Silent Hill 2 back in 2001, you simply craved more of that world to explore then Bloober Team looks to have you covered with its contemporary remake.
Reworked 3D Audio That Surrounds You With Fear
Much more than just a purely visual upgrade over the PlayStation 2 original, the Silent Hill 2 remake also brings fully reworked 3D audio to the table, meaning that you’ll hear every creeping footstep, every sound in the distance and of course, every single blood-curdling scream in all 360 degrees around you. Though it’s certainly great to have a feature like this, it’s also worth keeping note of how much money you’ll need to save in order to replace all the underwear you’ll be going through.
No Loading Screens – At Last
The leap to cutting edge technology has also meant that Bloober Team have been able to make the most of modern SSD storage solutions to essentially do away with loading screens entirely, making the Silent Hill 2 remake a pleasingly seamless experience from beginning to end. After all, twenty-second, mid-game loading screens were *so* 2001.
DualSense Controller Features
Jointly developed for both PC and PlayStation 5, the Silent Hill 2 remake also makes ample use of Sony’s handsomely made and versatile DualSense controller. Not only is haptic feedback fully supported, allowing you to feel the recoil of every gunshot and the impact of every incoming strike, but the adaptive triggers are also used by the Silent Hill 2 Remake to replicate the feeling of resistance that you get as you pull the trigger on your trusty firearm. It’s all good stuff that further enhances the level of immersion that is on offer in a game that already looks to be drowning in atmosphere.
If all this discussion of Silent Hill 2 has got you itching to lock in your October survival horror fix, then be sure to head over to the Green Man Gaming store and secure your copy at a tidy little discount.
